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Tuesday, 28 October 2003

Le Voyage de Chihiro

davidm emailed yesterday, recommending the latest film by the aclaimed director Hayao Miyazaki. I had read some rave reviews of this film, and look forward to seeing it. This is what he had to say:

Spirited Away is a full-length animated film about a Japanese child who wanders into a kind of feudal Japanese world, populated by witches, creatures and animals. This is a very poor description but in short it was enchanting, engrossing and I would recommend it highly to anyone. I was worried it would be too scary for Holly and told her a number of times before and during that if (for example the sight of the parents getting turned into pigs was too scary for her, we could leave for the comparative safety of the foyer. In the event she was fascinated and loved every minute of the story. The main character is a girl of about her age or perhaps seven or eight, who struggles against odds and manages to pull through, mainly by reciprocal acts of kindness to the creatures she meets. The strength is in the storyline and action which never stops.

The themes were interesting since it differed from the common good-guy / baddy idea so often found in children?s movies, each creature or person had more than one layer of personality and acted on their own. Holly says she wants the DVD for her birthday, but it is only going to be released here in February. I might just order it from Amazon in the states, since they are not bound by greedy European marketing schemes and have it for sale already.

Note: While Spirited Away may not be available in the UK, and Chihiros Reise ins Zauberland ist noch nicht ver?ntlicht in Deutschland, Le Voyage de Chihiro is indeed already available in France. The languages available on the DVD version are Japanese and French, with optional subtitles in English. I am not so sure whether that makes the French marketers of the film less greedy than the others

Posted by bigblue on 28/10/2003 at 12:19 PM
Filed under: Asia Pac • Japan • (2) Comments • Permalink • Bookmark or Share •

Spirited Away is showing in London (and therefore I assume elsewhere in the UK. It’s described as “modern day Alice In Wonderland”. That and “Hitler’s Secretary”* (filmumentary or docufilm - can’t remember which it’s called!) are at the top of my list for when next we go to London.

* Showing at “The Other Cinema” in London’s West End. Funny story: when reading the review (5 stars) aloud to lil blue meanie, I read her name as it is phoenetically spelled: Ggunger ...2minutes of saying it over and over and I realised as she was (is - she’s still alive) German, it should be “Yunger” Now that all of bigblue’s Alsation friends are laughing at me…

Posted by bluemeanie on 01/11/2003 at 12:09 AM

P.S. I should mention that her name is spelled Junger. She was his (Hitler’s) secretary from 1941, so I imagine pretty close to him. Something for our AA (Art Appreciation)/Film Soc. to see. If it were American I imagine it would probably win next year’s filmumentary (??) Oscar, as from what it sounds it is in the same rank as Bowling For Columbine (great).

Posted by bluemeanie on 01/11/2003 at 12:12 AM